LS POLLS|BJP, Modi responsible for ‘worsening’ Kashmir situation: Azad

Senior Congress leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Wednesday blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government for “worsening” the situation in Kashmir during its stint in power.

Addressing a party workers’ convention in Lolab, Kupwara,Azad said: “The situation in the Kashmir Valley had considerably improved whenthere was a Congress government at the Centre till 2014. The situation

   

 deteriorated afterthe came to power and created a situation like nineties in the Valley. Ifanyone is squarely responsible for the deterioration of the situation inKashmir, it is the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

“Apart from PM, a party from Kashmir which entered intoalliance with them (BJP) is also responsible for the worsening situation in theValley. I told this party many times that it will be a mistake to join handswith the BJP because it (BJP) is abusing Kashmiris from the past many decades.But they still allied with them and the result is in front of you,” Azad said.

He said that when the Congress and National Conference werein coalition in the state and Congress was at the helm in New Delhi also, “weput an end to militancy and ensured a peaceful environment in the Valley”.

He said the Congress governments at the Centre “gaveeverything that the chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir sought for the statewhen they were in power”.

“The Congress government provided colleges, electricity androads and never denied anything that the chief ministers from the state askedfor,” he said.

“During my tenure as the J&K chief minister”, Azad said,”I remember around 40 flights would land at the Srinagar airport every day andthey would be full of tourists. The people of Kashmir were happy during theCongress regime at the Centre. The tourists came in large numbers, whichdirectly helped in raising the economy of Kashmir”.

He said a “new work culture was created in J&K when Iwas the chief minister. I made people work in double and triple shifts. TheHajj house in Srinagar was built in eight months and the first-ever tulipgarden was completed in one-and-a-half years at just Rs four crore expenditure.The garden is bigger than mughal gardens”.

Azad said his government “made it a point that no Kashmirisdies at the hands of forces”.

“During my tenure, for the first time in the history ofKashmir, I ordered an inquiry when three street vendors from Lal Chowk wereallegedly picked up and had gone missing”.

He said that during the course of inquiry, “it came out thaton the same day (of missing of Lal Chowk trio), the Kashmir police claimed thatthey killed three Pakistani-based militants”.

“I asked for opening of their graves and afteridentification by their parents, it came out that the bodies were of the triowho had gone missing from Lal Chowk”.

Azad said the J&K police were “responsible for manyatrocities” in the Valley.

“I salute those policemen who were killed in the line ofduty. But there are some police personnel who killed innocent people to receivemoney and promotions,” he said.

Azad said during his tenure, “an illiterate person or afarmer or somebody else would join militancy, but today, doctors, engineers,professors, teachers, PG students are joining militancy and the Modi governmentis squarely responsible for creating an atmosphere in which people don’t havefaith in the government”. “What is the reason for attacks on army camps duringthe regime of BJP?” Azad asked. “Modi wants to win Kashmir and hearts of peopleat gunpoint”.

“In democracy, no one can win the hearts of people atgunpoint,” he said.

Later, talking to media-persons on the sidelines of theworkers’ meet, Azad said that Modi “should know how to control his tongue andthink twice before speaking anything”.

“The poll manifesto of the Congress is very exclusive. Wehave never made such an exclusive manifesto in the last 35 years,” he said.

“The separate voices (sic) coming from Kashmir are allbecause of Modi and his failed Kashmir policy. Modi pushed Kashmiris to thewall and now the voices of dissent are coming from all quarters,” he said.

Meanwhile, Azad Wednesday alleged that the rule of NarendraModi in India was a “dictatorship rule” and it was Mufti Sayeed’s “biggestmistake to join hands with Bharatiya Janata Party which has now pushed Jammuand Kashmir into 1990-era”.

He was addressing a public rally in Manjakote area ofRajouri district.

“The rule of Narendra Modi has been a dictatorship rule inthe country. The Modi government got cases registered against all its politicalrivals,” he said.

“The Modi government tried to take credit of every work doneby the country’s forces and scientists for its own political mileage,” Azadsaid.

He urged people to cast vote in favour of Congress candidateto ensure his win.

Earlier Azad addressed a political rally in Poonch.

Sumit Bhargav

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